Physician specialists to work at new South Side health center

Monday

Aug 19, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 19, 2013 at 8:33 AM

Dr. Ruchika Husa sees patients for half a day each week at Ohio State University's CarePoint East clinic on Taylor Avenue on the Near East Side. But too often, the cardiologist doesn't see them. She estimates that three to four of every 10 scheduled patients are no-shows.

Ben Sutherly, The Columbus Dispatch

Dr. Ruchika Husa sees patients for half a day each week at Ohio State University’s CarePoint East clinic on Taylor Avenue on the Near East Side.

But too often, the cardiologist doesn’t see them. She estimates that three to four of every 10 scheduled patients are no-shows.

“It’s really difficult for the patients to make it out to us,” Husa said.

In some cases, the patients have trouble finding transportation to their appointments. Some miss follow-up appointments after being released from University Hospital East, where they were treated for heart attacks, heart failure and elevated blood pressure. Without those check-ups, Husa said, the patients are at greater risk of returning to the hospital.

In a bid to improve the chances that South Side residents get care, Husa will begin seeing patients in January for half a day each week at the new John R. Maloney South Side Health Center under construction at 1905 Parsons Ave., the site of a former Schottenstein’s department store.

The 21,000-square-foot center, which cost the city of Columbus $7.58 million to construct and is being leased to Columbus Neighborhood Health Centers, is tentatively scheduled to open on Nov. 5. The site is just south of the first Maloney health center, named for the former city councilman, which closed in 2006 due to structural problems.

Husa’s work as a specialist there is believed to be unique among Ohio’s federally qualified health centers, which tend to focus on primary care.

But the partnership between Ohio State and Columbus Neighborhood Health Centers isn’t expected to end at cardiology. During 2014, Ohio State plans to expand its specialty offerings at the center to include ear, nose and throat care; pulmonology to help people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and endocrinology to benefit diabetics.

It’s unclear what the health center will pay Ohio State for specialist services; a contract has not been finalized.

The new health center is an effort to begin to restore depleted community-health services in Columbus’ southern neighborhoods, said Tom Horan, the CEO of Columbus Neighborhood Health Centers. “ It clearly is a neighborhood that’s in need of the services.”

Ohio State has been involved from the beginning to have the health center serve its area residents in a different way, Horan said.

He said the relationship with the university is expected to go beyond specialty services. Programs are expected to include Moms-2-Be, which focuses on ensuring healthy pregnancies and reducing infant mortality, and OSU physical and occupational therapy. Behavioral health services that are coordinated with primary care also will be housed at the new center.

Ohio State and the community health centers had a “very robust” relationship in the 1990s, but those ties unraveled as a result of “bureaucracy and personalities,” said Jerry Friedman, OSU associate vice president for external relations and advocacy. The new relationship at the Maloney center will help fill a gap in Ohio State’s service to the community, he said. “We’re in this for the long haul.”

Friedman said the new relationship reflects the push to deinstitutionalize health care and help people get medical care without going to expensive hospital ERs.

Seeing patients in the community should help Ohio State identify those with emerging health conditions who need angiograms and stress-testing, Husa said. “Just having primary care in these communities is not enough. We need to have a more-comprehensive system.”

bsutherly@dispatch.com

@BenSutherly

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